WASHINGTON, July 7: The United States plans to transfer control of security to Iraqis in half the country’s 18 provinces by the end of the year, a senior US military official said on Friday.

Brig Gen Kurt Chichowski said western forces would remain in an ‘overwatch’ role in case of trouble, and as trainers, but that responsibility for security would be turned over to Iraqis under detailed agreements with the new Iraqi government.

“I will tell you, it is our hope that approximately half of the provinces by the end of the year will have done this security transfer,” he said in a videoconference from Iraq.

The first province to be turned over to the Iraqis will be Muthana in south-central Iraq, which will occur in the “very, very near future,” he said.

Chichowski would not say which other provinces are in line for transfer, or how long the US military expects it will take to turn over all 18 provinces to Iraqis.

Likewise, he would not say whether the handovers will lead to a reduction in the 127,000-strong US force in Iraq.

“And while we have a road map for those kinds of things and we actually have projections, to associate to a direct timeline would be disingenuous,” he said.

The general said the 1,400 coalition troops in Muthana will move out of the cities and “into what we call an overwatch, or at least a reinforcing position, to be there in case — as conditions require and the prime minister asks.”—AFP